Guess where we’re eating tonight!

Italy’s first cinema-cum-restaurant is opening soon in Milan.

In Via Milazzo, a stone’s throw from the new Porta Nuova skyscrapers, where the historic Anteo cinema continues to attract full houses, an ambitious makeover is planned. It involves 10 screening halls – one of which is the hybrid restaurant – as well as a literary café, a sushi bar, a nursery, two outdoor events spaces and areas for meetings and workshops on the theme of cinema.

It’s to be Milan’s new Palazzo del Cinema once they’ve done extending it horizontally and vertically to a grand total of 5,000 square metres with around 1,250 seats. That won’t happen until around September 2017, though the old Anteo Spazio Cinema will continue to function meanwhile.

The ambitious private redevelopment goes against a tide of downtown cinema closures, but the Anteo is a beloved Milanese institution and the city – owner of the building and adjacent structures – is proud to go along with it.